The carriage had been clunking along for a few minutes, and X was, above all else, bored. There were just a few trinkets in the bag Jagged gave him. No maps, no nothing. Although he did have a book in the bag which had what little information those of Magnafell knew about the surface world collected into one manual.
"Um, have either of you seen the surface?"X asked the two guards pulling the carriage.
"No. It is a new experience for us, actually."one of them answered.
"A shame we won't be staying up there."the other added. Darn. X wanted to ask them about the surface but they hadn't been there either. He decided to read a little of his book. He flipped it open.
'Supposedly the surface of our world is inhabited primarily by 'Ponies', much like us in Magnafell, but instead of being made of metal and wires, they are made of flesh, blood, and bone. And thus are inferior to us in almost every way, except for the 'Unicorns' who have more magic capabilities than us. Along with the Ponies, the two other most notable species are Zebras, similar to ponies but their colors are limited generally to black/grey and white, and the Changelings, pony-like bugs with the ability to shape shift and apparently feed off emotions.'
Interesting. He didn't like the sound of these 'Changelings', and hoped he wouldn't run into them. He liked the sounds of these Ponies though, and wanted to meet them as quickly as possible. He wanted to read more, but he saw a faint glimmer in the distance that came from the edges of the massive iron door that barred the way into the Magnafell cavern. A minute passed and the carriage ground to a stop in front of the gate. The guards unhooked themselves from the carriage and started turning a wheel which was slowly opening the massive gate. When it was opened enough, the guards came back.
"Is this where I stop?"X asked.
"No. We have been given certain coordinates. We'll be there in a few minutes. Just sit down."a guard answered when the guards re hooked themselves to the carriage, pulling themselves out. Of course the door was set to shut again after a certain amount of time, so there was no risk. The carriage was pulled along for a few minutes until it again came to a halt near a signpost.
"HERE is your stop, sir."one of the guards prompted. The other unhooked himself and opened the door, letting X out, before shutting it and re hooking himself. The two guards then pulled the carriage away, back to the distant gate to Magnafell.
~~~
This surface world was amazing! The 'sun', this massive glowing ball in the sky, was amazing in how it alone could light everything here up! There were these strange, small little pointy bits of green sticking out of the ground, which his responsive computer gave him a good feeling when he ate them. There were tall, hard brown things(obviously their toughness was no match for that of a Mecha-pony) with larger green things sticking out of their tops, and these small, hard rocks seemed to have been laid out, as they did not appear everywhere and seemed to be going somewhere. He followed it one way with his eyes. That way was nothing but trees and darkness. Although Magnafell was shrouded in darkness, this dark felt...evil. Looking the other way, he saw...buildings! Yes, buildings! Like Magnafell! But these were not the simple copper-like boxes Magnafell houses were, they were taller, had strange pointy tops, and had a multitude of colours. But first he had to make note of what was here. After all, Queen Jagged HAD asked him to research EVERYTHING.
~~~
After drawing some sketches and managing to guess the names of some from his book, he decided to head to the collection of buildings. It was not too far away; if anyone there had paid attention to that road they would have seen the carriage pull up. In fact, X was surprised the guards hadn't taken him to the town. After reaching the small town, he was immediately confronted by a small....ah! Yes. Pony. Yes. These small ones were apparently called 'fillies', and were relatively young. X had not been around too long. A year or two. Was he a 'filly'? This filly had a strong orange coat and a pink mane and tail.
"Mister? Why do you look so strange? I've never seen ANYPONY in Ponyville like you."the filly asked.
"Uuuuh, well, where I come from...uh...it's natural to look like this."X....didn't really lie, in fact.
"And where is that?"the filly asked. Now another filly, this one light yellow with a big red mane and tail and proportionally massive pink bow on her head, was walking up behind the first one.
"Uuuuh, it called...."X tried to think up a name. Queen Jagged had told him SPECIFICALLY not to mention Magnafell.
"Me'etar. Long way away from here."X finished.
"I guessed. I've never heard of it." the filly responded.
"Yeah! Ah've never heard of this Me'etar place either! Ya sure you're not rememberin' it wrong?"the second filly asked. Now a third, white with a pink and purple curly mane and tail was coming up to them.
"No, I am pretty sure I am not suffering from Amnesia."X reassured the three small ponies. All three laughed.
"You don't need amnesia to remember something wrong!"this third filly chuckled. That was a new concept to X. Back in Magnafell if you didn't remember something it was called a minor case of amnesia, and one was often punished for letting themselves acquire it.
"Oh, by the way, what's your name, Mister?" the first filly asked.
"I am X-55, but I prefer to be simply called X."X answered.
"Odd name. Is it unique to Me'etar too?" the second filly asked.
"Yes. In Me'etar we all have a unique name." X answered.
"Huh."the third filly responded.
"And what are you three called?"X asked.
"I'm Scootaloo."the first answered.
"Applebloom, nice to meet ya!"the second answered.
"And I'm Sweetie Bell!"the third answered.
"And we're the Cutie Mark Crusaders!" the three chanted in unison.
"Cutie Mark?"X asked. The three looked at him, before Applebloom leaned to the side to discover the fact X had no mark.
"Yeah, it's a mark on our flanks that represent our special talents."Sweetie Bell answered.
"We're trying to earn ours."Scootaloo added.
"Say, mister, you don't have one, yet you're an adult." Applebloom noted.
"Well, I am actually just a couple of years old, and, well, I'm not actually good at anything. It's why the others in Magna-ME'ETAR...call me....pathetic and useless."X responded.
"You mean you're always that size?"Scootaloo asked.
"Well, yes. Except out Princesses and Queen of course."X answered.
"Must be tough for your family, having a kid who's always the same size."Sweetie Bell commented.
"Family?"X asked.
"Yeah, y'know, your momma and papa."Scootaloo answered.
"I...never had a family. If I did...I never got to meet them."X responded.
"Wait a sec, ah think..." Applebloom walked up to X and tapped a hoof on his copper chest plate, resulting in an echoing clang.
"Mister, are you a robot?"Applebloom asked.
"Well sort of..."X answered, feeling this conversation may end up getting him in danger.
"Cool! Girls, we've found us a robot!" Scootaloo grinned.
~~~
It had been interesting talking to these 'Cutie Mark Crusaders', and they had sort-of accepted him as one of them, as he was actually a little younger than them and had no mark, but it was getting dark and X had nowhere to stay the night.
"Uuuuh..."X scratched his forehead with a hoof.
"What is it?"Sweetie Bell asked just as she was leaving.
"I...I have nowhere to stay."X answered. Sweetie Bell thought for a moment.
"You're welcome to stay in the clubhouse for tonight. Wait here." Sweetie Bell signaled for him to wait and left. A few minutes later Sweetie Bell came back with a blanket and a pillow.
"My sister Rarity didn't want me taking these out to lend to a 'stranger'."Sweetie Bell gave X the items.
"My thanks. Back home I slept on a solid metal block." X chuckled.
"Well, goodnight." Sweetie Bell waved and left. X dragged the pillow under his head and lay the blanket over him. Staring out the window, X thought. He had made progress today. First day and he had made three friends, learned a little about pony architecture AND pony society! X lay his head down on the pillow and set himself to Recharge for the night.
~~~
The next day he was woken up by the nudging of Applebloom.
"Mister? I think y'all should get up."Applebloom helped X to his feet.
"Is there any particular reason?"X asked.
"Uuuh, it's just ah don't think you should be sleeping through the whole day, and we don't like new people in our clubhouse when we're at school." Applebloom answered.
"School?"X had never heard of that before.
"Yeah! It's where us fillies go to learn."Applebloom answered, gesturing to the hall-like building.
"I see." X nodded, observing several other fillies going inside the 'school'.
"Do ya wanna come?"Applebloom asked.
"Hm?"X snapped back to reality, having drifted into thought.
"Do ya wanna come? You're technically around our age, and I'm sure Miss Cherilee won't mind."Applebloom asked again. X pondered. This could be a useful way of learning! It would surely boost his research.
"Why not."X answered.